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Turkish Studies

ISSN: 1468-3849 (Print) 1743-9663 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ftur20

Women’s empowerment on a local level in Turkey:the case of violence against women

Ahu Sumbas & Berrin Koyuncu

To cite this article: Ahu Sumbas & Berrin Koyuncu (2018): Women’s empowermenton a local level in Turkey: the case of violence against women, Turkish Studies, DOI:10.1080/14683849.2018.1531711

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14683849.2018.1531711

Published online: 07 Oct 2018.

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Women’s empowerment on a local level in Turkey: thecase of violence against womenAhu Sumbas and Berrin Koyuncu

Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Faculty of Economics andAdministrative Sciences, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey

ABSTRACTMoving from the assumption that local governments are significantstakeholders of women’s empowerment policies, this article aims to examinethe struggle against violence against women (VAW) at the local level throughgender-sensitive policies employed by female mayors from a genderperspective and how these can be utilized as collective transformativeresources for women’s empowerment. Based on a field-study, the contentionof this article is that gender budgeting, gender-sensitive collective-laborcontracts, and women’s support centers are institutional resources for thetransformation of the municipal-budget, for attitude transformation in maleemployees, and for sustainable empowerment policies in the struggle againstVAW in municipalities in Turkey. This article, stressing the link between thestruggle against VAW and women’s empowerment, reveals the significance ofinstitutionalization of gender-sensitive policies and the struggle at local levelas two prominent factors taken to be into consideration in women’sempowerment.

ARTICLE HISTORY Received 30 January 2018; Accepted 26 September 2018

KEYWORDS Women’s empowerment; violence against women; municipality; gender equality in Turkey;gender policy

Introduction

Since the 1980s, the literature on women’s empowerment has associated theconcept with developmental issues and thus has principally looked at it inrelation to three main indicators: women’s education, employment, and pol-itical participation.1 The ultimate goal of women’s empowerment, from thisperspective, is to attain gender equality by challenging patriarchal powerrelations. Hence, the scholarly literature on women’s empowerment inTurkey mostly concentrates on these standard indicators as essentialmeasures of empowerment, with a specific emphasis on rural and working

© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

CONTACT Ahu Sumbas asumbas@hacettepe.edu.tr, ahusumbas@yahoo.com; Berrin Koyuncubkoyuncu@hacettepe.edu.tr Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Faculty ofEconomics and Administrative Sciences, Hacettepe University, Beytepe Campus, Ankara 06800, Turkey

TURKISH STUDIEShttps://doi.org/10.1080/14683849.2018.1531711

women.2 In contrast to these studies, a study by Kardam and Kardam lookedat women’s empowerment in practice through the gender training programsprovided by women’s organizations, which targeted change at the personallevel in terms of self-confidence and making personal choices – the ‘powerwithin’ – as well as collective empowerment through participating insociety as citizens – the ‘power with.’3 This article aims to examinewomen’s empowerment in the struggle against violence against women (here-after VAW) at the local level through gender-sensitive policies employed byfemale mayors from a gender perspective and how these can be utilized as col-lective transformative resources for women’s empowerment. We believe thatthis research has a potential to fill the gap in the literature on gender and poli-tics by focusing on the successful policy implementation of municipalities inreducing VAW. This article, stressing the link between the struggle againstVAW and women’s empowerment, reveals the significance of institutionaliza-tion of gender-sensitive policies and the struggle at the local level as two pro-minent factors that should be taken into consideration in women’sempowerment.

VAW is one of the most widespread problems women face worldwide, andaccording to statistical data, one in three women both across the world and inTurkey are exposed to violence.4 We take VAW as a manifestation of histori-cally unequal power relations between men and women,5 as well as anoutcome of gender inequality leading to women’s subordination andrestricted access to resources. As Kabeer has noted,6 if poverty is the most sig-nificant constraint leading individuals dependent on others and disempower-ing women from making real choices at the individual level, being exposed toviolence as a result of having no alternative is another cause of women’s dis-empowerment that should be taken into serious consideration. Moreover,VAW is not just a personal but a collective problem for women and thereforemust be combated with collective action.

Since the mid-2000s, several significant steps have been taken in Turkey toachieve gender equality at all levels of government and decision-makingbodies, as well as to combat VAW. Turkey is proud to have been the first sig-natory of the Istanbul Convention, a Council of Europe treaty on preventingand fighting VAW and domestic violence.7 But it cannot be claimed that thegovernment has fully carried out its responsibilities in terms of combatingVAW. In 2017, 409 women were documented as having been killed by menin Turkey.8 The United Nations Gender Inequality Index (2016) andGlobal Gender Gap Index (2017) also demonstrate that Turkey needs tostrengthen the institutional capacities of its state mechanisms in the pursuitof gender equality.9

We assert that the implementation of statutory responsibilities and theadoption and prioritization of gender-sensitive policies are critical for aneffective struggle against VAW in terms of women’s empowerment,

2 A. SUMBAS AND B. KOYUNCU

particularly in the highly gendered local politics in Turkey.10 Here, we employ‘gender-sensitive policies’ to refer to gender budgeting, gender-sensitive col-lective-labor contracts and women’s support centers as local-level resourcesfor women’s empowerment as part of the struggle against VAW. Borrowingfrom Kabeer and Mosedale,11 we define women’s empowerment as aprocess of gaining access to the resources that encourage women to becomeself-reliant and gain agency at the individual and collective level for the era-dication of gender inequality, here with a special focus on VAW, which shiftspower relations at the household, community and market level in favor ofwomen. Based on the findings of our field research, the contention of thisarticle is that gender-sensitive policies adopted by municipalities in Turkeygoverned by female mayors can function as transformative resources thatempower women by reinforcing a collective institutional struggle againstVAW at the local level through acting as agents for the transformation ofthe municipal budget, making changes in attitudes, and instituting sustainablepolicies of women’s empowerment. Hence, this research adds to the literatureby examining good municipal-level policy practices essential for the trans-formation of institutions towards supporting gender equality and empower-ing women.

The article is divided into four parts. The first part of the article contains anoverview of the literature and the conceptual background concerningwomen’s empowerment and gender-sensitive policy in the elimination ofVAW. The second part examines the significance of women’s empowermentand gender-sensitive approaches at a local level in Turkey in terms of genderequality and VAW. The third part introduces the research design of the studyand the fourth part of the article investigates gender-sensitive policies such asgender budgeting, gender-sensitive collective-labor contracts and women’ssupport centers in selected municipalities in Turkey as ‘transformativeresources’ to empower women in the fight against VAW.

A conceptual overview of women’s empowerment

The concept of women’s empowerment was first articulated in the 1980s and1990s with the intention of transforming power relations and economic,social, and political structures by taking into account gender equality. Thekey steps in that regard were the UN 1995 Fourth World Conference onWomen (Beijing, China) and the United Nations Millennium Summit in2000 where women’s empowerment and gender-sensitive strategy wereencouraged to promote gender equality and combat VAW. In particular,the third Millennium Development Goal, recommending the empowermentof women as the key policy objective, provided a solid basis for the struggleagainst VAW.12 Indeed, since the mid-1990s, both international conven-tions13 and women’s organizations have strongly advised the adoption of

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governmental and institutional mechanisms to render policymaking gender-sensitive to eradicate gender inequality in general and VAW in particular allover the world. One hundred twenty-five countries, which ratified the 1979Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination AgainstWomen (CEDAW), outlawed domestic violence, and all the member statesof the European Union (EU) have officially sought to foster women’s empow-erment. Women’s empowerment has been adopted into the mainstreamdevelopment discourse and most policy strategies aiming at women’s empow-erment prioritize the issues of women’s education, health, economic develop-ment and political participation.14 In this process, political actors and genderexperts have devised a variety of policy tools and mechanisms to reformulate/reorganize all kinds of policy strategies from immigration, employment,micro-credit, and poverty to agriculture, health and culture from a genderperspective.15

Women need resources, capacity building, and the ability to exercise moreagency in their lives in the context of gender equality, as they are presentlydisadvantaged and disempowered at different levels of social, economic andpolitical relations due to their perceived gender roles and identities.16 Fromthis perspective, women’s empowerment connotes a socio-political processthat includes shifts in power relations between and across men and womenas individuals and social groups. In this regard, empowerment is very muchrelated to power: ‘power over’ (male domination), ‘power to’ (capacity-build-ing), ‘power within’ (individual empowerment) and ‘power with’ (collectiveempowerment). Therefore, it is closely related to prevailing patterns ofaccess and control over economic, social, political, natural and intellectualresources and the institutions that reinforce existing power relations in thesocio-political realm.17

Due to the symbiotic relation of gender equality and women’s empower-ment, the notion of women’s empowerment should address a broader frame-work which includes various attempts and policies that are part of the struggleagainst different sorts of gender-based discrimination and inequality issueswithin society.18 One such issue is VAW. Generally, the research focusingon women’s empowerment and VAW approach the issue from an economicperspective in the extent of micro-rural credit programs in eliminating vio-lence.19 Yet, as Kabeer and Batliwala note, in addition to the contributionof access to financial services, there is a need for other transformative inter-ventions and resources to distribute power throughout institutions and inter-personal relations for empowering women which are contingent on context.20

These transformative resources are prominent means for the achievement ofwomen’s capacity building which is one of the primary goals of women’sempowerment, through satisfying their practical and strategic needs andinspiring change in their status at a collective level. Hence, the transformativeresources of women’s empowerment, building the individual and collective

4 A. SUMBAS AND B. KOYUNCU

capacity of women, can constitute to progress to sustain gender equality in thelong run. However, since institutional bias can constrain one’s ability to makestrategic choices, this progress can be accomplished through the transform-ation of institutional mechanisms and the presence of accountable authoritieswith regard to the problems of inequality and violence in order to underminethe systematic reproduction of gender inequality21 and to create real socialtransformation.22

Kabeer conceptualizes women’s empowerment in three dimensions:agency (the processes by which choices are made), resources (the mediumthrough which agency is exercised) and achievement (the outcomes ofagency).23 We regard gender-sensitive policies such as gender budgeting,gender-sensitive collective-labor contracts and women’s support centers astransformative resources, and going some way to an effective struggleagainst VAW as their achievement. At this juncture, these gender-sensitivepolicies have been implemented by municipalities in institutional forms,but they may serve to help attain gender equality and empower women atthe individual and collective level concerning VAW, which remains on thesidelines as a ‘cost’ or ‘luxury’ separate from the center of local politics.24 Inthis vein, Krizsan and Pap have pointed out that effective coordination atthe local level is important to provide localized and contextualized responsesto VAW.25 Therefore, gender-sensitive policies as transformative resourcescarry the potential to initiate change in the patriarchal mentality26 and struc-tures of local government in Turkey.

Women’s empowerment at the local level in Turkey: the issue ofVAW

Prime Ministry Circular no. 2006/17 rendered the struggle against VAW statepolicy in Turkey and for the first time attributed responsibility to local gov-ernments as key stakeholders in this struggle. Although Weldon andHtun27 argue that policy adoption is important for getting governments totake violence seriously and take action against VAW, there is still nolegally-binding commitment in Turkey towards the empowerment ofwomen and the adoption of gender-sensitive policies in combating VAW atthe municipal level.28 İlker Haktankaçmaz. an official at the Turkish Ministryof Interior Affairs, has argued that local governments have failed to meet theirliabilities in redressing VAW in the case of women’s shelters, and thatapproaches considering these shelters as the fundamental actors in preventiveprecautions regarding VAW have proven to be dysfunctional.29 According toHaktankaçmaz, the underlying factor in this failure is a common understand-ing of municipalities’ key responsibilities as being the provision of urbaninfrastructure services such as water, sewage systems and transportation; geo-graphical and urban data systems; environment and environmental health,

TURKISH STUDIES 5

cleaning and solid waste. He claims that mayors are not willing to invest insecondary issues, such as VAW, which do not bring them votes. Accordingly,as the studies of Şenol et al., and Gunluk-Senesen et al. on gender equality pol-icies in municipalities in Turkey also highlight, most local governments con-tinue to be gender-blind, or at best their initiative stays ad hoc addressing aspecific crisis in service delivery and combating VAW in Turkey.30

Initiatives such as the UN’s Women Friendly Cities Programme (WFCP-2006) have introduced the idea of empowering women at the local level inTurkey by developing gender-sensitive perspectives in policy-making pro-cesses through the adoption of institutional arrangements and capacity-build-ing measures such as gender-budgeting and equality commissions.31 TheWFCP revealed that the pilot cities (İzmir, Kars, Nevşehir, Şanlıurfa,Trabzon, Adıyaman, Antalya, Bursa, Gaziantep, Malatya, Mardin, andSamsun) had not fully achieved the adoption of a gender-based perspectivein governance and most of the expected institutional change through thesemeasures remains idle in practice due to the lack of compulsory provisionsand of the political will to achieve them among local leaders.32

Municipalities who have adopted elements of gender-responsive govern-ance include İstanbul/Beylikdüzü33 (CHP), Bursa/Nilüfer (CHP), İzmir/Urla (CHP), İzmir/Bornova (CHP), Eskişehir (CHP), Edirne (CHP), Şanlıurfa(AKP), Şanlıurfa/Eyyübiye (AKP), and Gaziantep (AKP), which haveattempted to apply gender-budgeting, and Ankara/Çankaya (CHP), whichhas started an initiative to promote a ‘Local Equality Action Plan’ andfounded a Department of Women’s Services.34 These particular policies andpractices, taking a gender-sensitive approach at the local level in Turkey,have not yet resulted in a full-fledged understanding for the consolidationof gender equality awareness in local/municipal politics. In line withAlanso’s35 analysis of Spain where the VAW statistics are alarming,36 weargue that good practices can be assessed as ‘lessons drawn’,37 and it is essen-tial to shed light on gender-sensitive policies in Turkey that are laying the fun-damentals for the establishment of an institutionalized agency to collectivelyempower women at the local level in the face of VAW and gender inequality.

Research design

As the literature on gender and local politics38 has revealed, the political will offemalemayorswith a feminist awareness can play a critical role in the process oftransforming local governments into gender-responsive agents and effectivelycombating VAW, as well as fighting the patriarchal mentality in local govern-ment. This is the case in Turkey specifically due to the ‘strong mayor’ system,where the elected mayor is responsible for the management of budgets, outlin-ing the agendas of municipal meetings and hiring for municipal jobs. Thissystem grants the elected mayor substantial political and administrative

6 A. SUMBAS AND B. KOYUNCU

authority over the municipality.39 That the leading successes in terms ofgender-sensitive policies are to be found in municipalities with femalemayors in Turkey can be regarded as evidence to support this claim.40 Forinstance, a recent study on the implementation of gender budgeting by muni-cipalities in Turkey indicates that Diyarbakır/Bağlar, which has been governedby female mayors since 1999 and is one of the municipalities covered by ourstudy, is a very successful example.41 Additionally, the authors underline thesignificance of Fatma Şahin, the female mayor of Gaziantep Municipalitysince 2014 and the former Minister of Family and Social Policies of the AKPgovernment, who works in close relationship with the women’s organizations,as one of those who has been pushing for more gender budgeting.42

This research43 comprises all 36 municipalities governed by female mayorsin the period between 2004–2009 and 2009–2014 in Turkey (see Table 1) fromdifferent political parties (the AKP, CHP, and Peace and Democracy Party-BDP).44 In line with the objectives of this article, our findings are derivedfrom the municipalities that have demonstrated the successful adoption ofgender-sensitive policies such as gender budgeting, gender-sensitive collec-tive-labor contracts, and women’s support centers as lessons to be drawn inwomen’s empowerment and the combating of VAW.

As seen below in Tables 2–4, these successful practices have mostly beenadopted by mayors from BDP municipalities with gender-sensitive local gov-ernments. The comparative findings of the nationwide ‘Domestic ViolenceAgainst Women on Turkey’ Research Projects (2015) which spotlighted adecrease in VAW in the Southeastern part of Turkey, which had been mostlyruled by BDP municipalities, can be evaluated as evidence for the role of thepolitical will in the struggle against VAW.45 At this point, we acknowledgethat these practices may be observed in other BDP-controlled municipalities,and that the party’s gender policy is one of the key factors influencing theimplementation of gender sensitive policies in Turkey. However, the femalemayors from the BDP we interviewed also drew attention to the differencesbetween them and male mayors from the same party in putting gender-sensi-tive policies into practice (Diyarbakır/Bismil, 2004–2009 and 2009–2014;Tunceli, 2004–2009; and Mardin/Nusaybin, 2004–2009). Consequently, weare notmaking a general claim andwe donot aim to give the full picture nation-wide. For the sake of this article, we are only highlighting good practices in thestruggle against VAW as resources for women’s empowerment.

The data we used as the basis of this study was derived from the Reports onMunicipal Facilities (hereafter RMF), the Strategic Plans of Municipalities(hereafter SPM), and municipal publications that indicated local servicelevels and reflected priorities in policy framing in the period between 2004and 2014. Additionally, face-to-face semi-structured in-depth interviewslasting from 30 to 90 min were conducted with the mayors of the municipa-lities by the authors. They were audio recorded with the informed consent of

TURKISH STUDIES 7

Table 1. Municipalities included in the research.2009–2014 2004–2009

1. Aydın/Merkez (CHP) 1. Adana/Küçükdikili (BDP)2. Aydın/İncirliova (CHP) 2. Bartın/Kozcağız (CHP)3. Ağrı/Doğubayazıt (BDP) 3. Ağrı/Doğubayazıt (BDP)4. Diyarbakır/Bağlar (BDP) 4. Diyarbakır/Bağlar (BDP)5. Diyarbakır/Bismil (BDP) 5. Diyarbakır/Bismil (BDP)6. Diyarbakır/Eğil (BDP) 6. Denizli/Honaz/Karaçay (CHP)7. Diyarbakır/Lice (BDP) 7. İzmir/Menemen/Seyrek (CHP)8. Edirne/Uzunköprü/Kurtbey (CHP) 8. Uşak/Hasköy (CHP)9. Eskişehir/Mahmudiye (AKP) 9. Mardin/Kızıltepe (BDP)

10. Gaziantep/Islahiye (AKP) 10. Sivas/İnkışla (CHP)11. Giresun/Doğankent (AKP) 11. Giresun/Doğankent (AKP)12. Hakkari/Yüksekova (BDP) 12. Hatay/Küçükdalyan (CHP)13. Hatay/Dörtyol/Yeşilköy (AKP) 13. Hatay/Dörtyol/Yeşilköy (AKP)14. Iğdır/Melekli (CHP) 14. Mardin/Sürgücü (BDP)15. Iğdır/Aralık (CHP) 15. Mardin/Mazıdağı (BDP)16. Kırklareli/Kavaklı (CHP) 16. Kırklareli/Kavaklı (CHP)17. Tunceli/Merkez (BDP) 17. Tunceli/Merkez (BDP)18. Van/Bostaniçi (BDP) 18. Van/Bostaniçi (BDP)19. Konya/Akşehir/Adsız (AKP)20. Mardin/Derik (BDP)21. Mardin/Nusaybin (BDP)22. Mardin/Savur/Yeşilalan (BDP)23. Muğla/Milas/Bafa (CHP)24. Muş/Varto (BDP)25. Şanlıurfa/Viranşehir (BDP)26. Şırnak/Uludere (BDP)

Table 2. Municipalities with gender budgeting.Municipalities

1. Diyarbakır/Bağlar2. Diyarbakır/Bismil3. Mardin/Nusaybin4. Hakkari/Yüksekova5. Ağrı/Doğubeyazıt6. Şanlıurfa/Viranşehir7. Tunceli/Merkez

Table 3. Municipalities with gender-sensitivecollective-labor contracts.Municipalities

1. Diyarbakır/Bağlar2. Diyarbakır/Bismil3. Mardin/Nusaybin4. Mardin/Sürgücü5. Mardin/Kızıltepe6. Mardin/Derik7. Muş/Varto8. Tunceli/Merkez9. Şırnak/Uludere10. Şanlıurfa/Viranşehir11. Van/Bostaniçi12. Adana/Küçükdikili

8 A. SUMBAS AND B. KOYUNCU

the respondents and transcribed verbatim with the field notes of non-verbaland paralinguistic communications.

Qualitative content analysis was used to classify and categorize the data gath-ered in order to highlight our findings. As Bryman argues, qualitative contentanalysis, ‘comprising a searching-out of underlying themes in the materialsbeing analyzed’ enables the researcher to better interpret the text.46 We usedthe data concerning the municipal services and policies to classify themunder the headings ‘protective,’ ‘preventive’ and ‘supportive-empowerment.’After re-reading and coding the data based on a detailed list of gender-sensitiveservices and policies in the municipalities, key themes concerning the gender-sensitive practices of these municipalities in the struggle against VAW appearas: gender budgeting as a resource for the transformation of the municipalbudget, gender-sensitive collective-labor contracts as a resource for the trans-formation of the attitudes of male employees, and women’s support centersas resources for sustainable empowerment policies.

Women’s empowerment at the axis of the VAW issue in Turkey:gender-sensitive policies as ‘transformative resources’

This part of the article focuses on the gender-sensitive policies in municipa-lities that we regarded as the transformative resources of women’s empower-ment for an effective fight against VAW in Turkey. We classify these practicesunder three main policies: (1) gender budgeting, (2) gender-sensitive collec-tive-labor contracts, and (3) women’s support centers, none of whoseimplementation is legally regulated by the state in Turkey. Therefore, theirapplication is dependent on the individual preferences of political leaders,making the political will critical to their implementation.

Gender budgeting: an institutional resource for the transformation ofthe municipal budget

The strategy of gender budgeting rests on the idea that women’s needs andinterests should be taken into consideration in the planning of government

Table 4. Municipalities with a women’s support center (WSC).Municipalities

1. Ağrı/Doğubayazıt-Arjin WSC2. Diyarbakır/Bağlar-Kardelen WSC3. Diyarbakır/Bismil-Nujin WSC4. Diyarbakır/Lice-Nujiyan WSC5. Hakkari/Yüksekova-Sosin WSC6. Tunceli/Merkez-Dersim WSC7. Van/Bostaniçi-Maya WSC8. Mardin/Derik-Peljin WSC9. Mardin/Nusaybin-Gülşinav WSC10. Mardin/Kızıltepe-Nuda WSC11. Şanlıurfa/Viranşehir-Berjin and Pelşim-Amara WSC

TURKISH STUDIES 9

budgets.47 The rationale is to ensure the allocation of financial resourcesnecessary for the carrying out of policies and services from a gender-basedperspective. The idea of gender budgeting in Turkey was introducedthrough projects funded by the UN since 2006; there were no reportedcases of gender budgeting in Turkey before the WFCP.48 The need forgender budgeting was first mentioned in Turkey as a recommendation inthe government’s Tenth National Five-Year Development Plan (2014–2018).49 Though just a recommendation, it is still critical that this gender-sen-sitive policy which is vital women’s empowerment and the combat againstVAWwas officially expressed in this way. The inadequate funding for servicesaddressing VAW, particularly shelters, was also described as a fundamentalobstacle to fighting VAW by the municipality personnel and representativesof civil society organizations in Turkey.50

Out of the 36 in this study, seven municipalities applied gender budgeting(see Table 2).

It is noteworthy that the municipalities concerned first clearly expressedtheir intention to adopt gender budgeting, which is very much intrinsic totheir goal of women’s empowerment, in their strategic plans. ‘To allocatefund for women in the preparation of the municipal budget… To preparethe necessary conditions for the implementation of gender budgeting to effec-tively respond to women’s needs and problems’ (Şanlıurfa/Viranşehir Muni-cipality 2010–2014 SPM; Tunceli Municipality 2004–2009 SPM, 2009–2014SPM, 2004–2009 RMF and 2009–2012 RMF).

At around this time, Gunluk-Şenesen et al. drew attention to the need forcompulsory arrangements for gender budgeting. Notwithstanding this, theircomparative research (2013–4) in five WFCP pilot cities with five neighboringcities revealed that these institutional attempts and arrangements as gender-sensitive recommendations did not result in a meaningful improvement ordifference in the two categories. What they emphasized was the absence ofthe political will to apply gender budgeting.51 Haktankaçmaz also pinpointedthe unwillingness of the most of the local leaders and municipal councils inTurkey to allocate money from their budget to support areas of ‘secondaryresponsibility’ such as women’s centers, shelters, empowerment training ses-sions and services addressing VAW.52 At this juncture, as we have been tryingto emphasize, the political will of the mayor is crucial to the existence ofgender-sensitive institutional arrangements. In fact, they have is a kind ofchicken-and-egg relationship. The following two excerpts from the interviewsevince the intertwined relationship between these two factors:

We are expected to establish women’s shelters in the municipality and verywilling to fulfil this expectation. But the municipality budget is not allocateda special fund to cover such costs. We should consider how to afford itwithout government funding. (2009–2014, BDP)

10 A. SUMBAS AND B. KOYUNCU

There is no legal obligation to encourage municipalities to apply gender budget-ing in Turkey. Mayors and municipal councils do not hold the responsibility toadopt a gender perspective which, in turn, leads to a gender imbalance in theallocation of local services. We try to adopt a gender perspective in the for-mation of strategic plans and budgeting. For instance, while we are planningcultural-social activities and discussing about city-planning in municipal meet-ings, we consider women’s interests and demands. VAW is a policy area that wehad to divide up a budget to combat at municipal level. In doing so, we infor-mally apply gender budgeting in our municipality. (2009–2014, BDP)

All in all, we claim that gender budgeting constitutes one of the essentialresources for both carrying out empowerment policies and introducinggender-based services. First women’s concerns and needs are taken intoaccount in the process of agenda-setting and then in budgeting. Secondly, aclaim to a share of the budget is believed to prepare the ground for the exerciseof women’s agency and the improvement of women-friendly policy framingas well as policy implementation. Hence, the application of gender budgetingin the municipalities can help to challenge the established patriarchal govern-ing mentality in local governments which prioritize conventional service areassuch as zoning, town-planning, and garbage collection. Hence, gender budget-ing may be regarded as one of the transformative resources of women’sempowerment in transmuting power relations with regard to ‘access andcontrol over economic and political resources.’53 Therefore, as the followingexcerpt shows, the attempts of municipalities to implement gender budgetingmake a substantial constitution to local governments providing and sustain-ing policies of empowerment.54

Gender-sensitive policy-making is closely related to the distribution ofresources and funds. The capacities of local governments and mayors arelimited by funding. In the current system, there is no legal and formal guaranteeof funding for gender-sensitive policy priorities. You need to persuade themunicipal council to save a budget for women’s needs, which is usually imposs-ible. Hence, we started an initiative in our party, particularly among femalemayors, to create women’s budgets in municipalities. We collected data tospecify women’s needs and problems, and we offered a strategic plan andthen to budget in this respect. This makes it possible for us to supportwomen’s shelters and municipal women’s support centers. (2004–2009, BDP)

Since the municipalities’ scope of services closely influences the life of womenas observed in the example of women’s shelters, gender budgeting can be con-ceived as an opportunity structure to strengthen the realization of women’sagency and empowerment in terms of accessing the necessary assets. Forexample, we found out that the municipalities adopting gender budgetingmanaged to provide services and empowerment strategies addressing VAWsuch as consciousness-raising activities on VAW, vocational trainings forwomen, women’s shelter, social activities, counseling and rehabilitation pro-grams for the victims of VAW (Diyarbakır/Bağlar Municipality SPM 2009–

TURKISH STUDIES 11

2014; RMF 2009–2014; Diyabakır/Bismil 2009–2014 SPM; Mardin/Nusaybin2009–2014 SPM). More significant is the establishment of active women’ssupport centers with the help of gender budgeting in Diyarbakır/Bismil(2009–2014 SPM), Diyarbakır/Bağlar (SPM 2009–2014; RMF 2009–2014)and Tunceli Municipalities (2009–2014 RMF, SPM). On that account, wecontend that gender budgeting can be appropriated as a transformativeresource and an institutional form of agency to help municipalitiesempower women in the struggle against VAW.

Gender-sensitive collective-labor contracts: an institutional resourcefor attitude transformation

The enforcement of gender-sensitive collective-labor contracts, designed toguarantee both the rights and obligations of the employees and employersin respecting gender equality to eliminate discrimination among men andwomen, is not compulsory in local governments in Turkey. The firstgender-sensitive collective-labor contract was implemented by Diyarbakır/Kayapınar Municipality in 2004.55 Following this, several other municipalitiesgoverned by mayors from the pro-Kurdish parties in Turkey stepped forwardto further develop a gender perspective in collective-labor contracts to elim-inate gender inequalities.56 It is noteworthy that most of these were the muni-cipalities governed by female mayors in our research. 22 out of 36municipalities in our study have signed collective-labor contracts, but only12 of them have adopted a gender-sensitive approach (see Table 3).

Since 2006, Adana/Küçükdikili, Tunceli and Diyarbakır/Bağlar Munici-palities have adopted gender-sensitive collective-labor contracts includinga clause intended to prevent all kinds of VAW by male employees whichgives half of a male employee’s salary to his wife in case a violent incidentis recorded. In addition to this contract clause, Adana/Küçükdikili, Diyar-bakır/Bağlar, Diyarbakır/Bismil, Mardin/Derik, Mardin/Nusaybin Munici-palities have supported the struggle against polygamy and child-marriageswith an additional clause which stipulates that the payment of benefitsand severance pay of the male employees will be paid to the wife bycivic marriage or the contractual rights of the employees will be lostshould polygamy or a child marriage be discovered. Mardin/Derik andMardin/Nusaybin Municipalities also enlarged the scope of their contractsto include the right to women’s education, so they will terminate the con-tract of an employee if he prevents his daughter or sister from going toschool. An excerpt from an interview with the mayor of Mardin/Nusaybinhighlighted the potential impact of gender-sensitive collective-labor con-tracts as disincentives protecting women from violence and renderinglocal governments and labor unions responsible actors in the struggleagainst VAW.

12 A. SUMBAS AND B. KOYUNCU

We, particularly female politicians, cannot close our eyes to the problem ofVAW… The population of my municipality is around 100,000. I don’t havethe chance to touch each woman individually. Yet, we are able to reach a lotof men and women through our support for political measures to combatVAW. One such measure is the adoption of gender-sensitive collective-laborcontracts. Through them, we are able to reach 400 families, meaning morethan 1000 women at a time. We formulate the preventive-deterrence clausesin the contracts to prevent VAW before it happens. For instance, the salaryof a male employee is paid to his wife if he commits violence against her andhis labor contract is terminated if he becomes polygamous. It is not compulsoryin Turkey but our political party has started an initiative within the partyprogram to apply gender-sensitive collective-labor contracts. (2009–2014,BDP)

As emphasized in the above excerpt, the implementation of gender-sensitivecollective-labor contracts works as an influential deterrence measure and aninstitutionalized policy response to encourage the empowerment of womenin the struggle against VAW. In addition to these practices, the findings ofour research demonstrate the need for the political will to achieve gender-responsive local governments because, as an officer of TUMBELSENpointed out, the major barrier to the implementation of such gender-sensitivecollective-labor contracts is the unwillingness of mayors to put them inplace.57

Indeed, the expected result of these gender-sensitive collective-labor con-tacts might be the affirmative impact of these policies in creating a changein men’s attitudes by deterring violence and preventing VAW in Turkey.

The daughters and wives of our employees who are able to continue their edu-cation instead of having early marriages or who are no longer subject to dom-estic violence visit us to state their gratitude. These women are the proof of theeffectiveness of gender-sensitive collective-labor contracts in preventing VAWand struggling against it. (2009–2014, BDP)

Gender-sensitive collective-labor contracts can be utilized as critical transfor-mative agents leading to change in the attitudes of men who do not let theirdaughters/sisters go to school or force them to marry at early ages. By the helpof these contracts, girls are empowered through finding the opportunity togain an education and resist early marriages, resulting in their individualempowerment (power within). Since gender-sensitive policies essentiallyintend to alter the outcomes of established policies to encourage equalitybetween the sexes by transmuting the existing masculine understandingwithin existing structures and among officials, the adoption of attitude trans-formation tools in local governments plays a fundamental role in women’sempowerment. As Batliwala argues, such a cognitive and behavioral trans-formation can sustain true comprehensive women’s empowerment by chal-lenging the prevailing unequal distribution of power and bringing gender-related changes into women’s lives.58 Therefore, gender-sensitive collective-

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labor contracts serve as opportunity structures and empower women not onlyat the individual level but also at the collective level through transformingmen’s attitudes and women’s capacity for agency for collective struggle andhence enhance ‘power with.’ In doing so, they can be considered as transfor-mative agencies to prevent VAW in the long run.

Women’s support centers: institutional resources for sustainableempowerment policies

Women’s support centers as the specialized women units are fundamental fordiffusing a gender-based perspective at governmental level and empoweringwomen, since they are institutionally designed to coordinate, monitor, andevaluate gender-sensitive policies/services.59 Within the scope of our research,11 municipalities out of 36 had established women’s support centers (seeTable 4).60

We found out that women’s support centers in Diyarbakır/Bağlar (Karde-len-2004) and Diyarbakır/Bismil (Nujin-2010) carried out significant activi-ties for women from a gender-sensitive approach and improved thecapacity of their municipalities to empower women. The mayors of Diyarba-kır/Bağlar and Diyarbakır/Bismil Municipalities stated (2009–2014, BDP)that one of the main concerns of Kardelen and Nujin was the struggleagainst VAW and, as the municipal records show (Diyarbakır/Bağlar 2009–2015 RMF, Diyarbakır/Bismil 2009–2014 RMF and 2009–2014 SPM), theCenters fulfilled their function effectively. 1109 victims of VAW hadapplied to Kardelen to ask for assistance, consulting and counseling-servicesas well as protection, and twelve thousand local women had benefited fromawareness-raising meetings between 2005 and 2011.61 Similarly, Nujinoffered counseling and rehabilitation services for 610 victims of VAW inthe first nine months.62 Therefore, we claim that, like the women’s units/centers in Northern Ireland’s ROWAN, Albania’s Community CoordinatedResponse (CCR) and United Kingdom’s Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Con-ference (MARAC),63 women’s support centers in Turkey can be regarded assuccessful institutions that have helped women to more easily air grievances,provide a secure environment, and ensure a comprehensive and coordinatedresponse to VAW at a local level.

Additionally, these centers support policies for women’s empowermentthrough child-care services, job opportunities, financial aid and awareness-raising activities to inform women about how to combat polygamy, early-marriage and violence (the campaign-conference Stop Violence AgainstWomen, 2005; Research on VAW, 2010) (Diyarbakır/Bağlar 2004–2009and 2009–2014 RMF; Diyarbakır/Bismil 2009–2014 RMF, SPM). These activi-ties at women support centers are important to both strengthen women’scapacity for agency and to improve the gender responsiveness of

14 A. SUMBAS AND B. KOYUNCU

municipalities by providing the necessary assets. For instance, research carriedout on the issue of VAW triggered the Diyarbakır/Bağlar Municipality toestablish a women’s shelter (2009–2014, BDP). Moreover, Kardelen plays akey role in bringing VAW onto the public agenda.64 Thus, as observed inthe cases of Rwanda, Chile, and Frankfurt,65 these centers have lead electedbodies to take women’s concerns into account and help local womendevelop their capacity to resist inequality concerning VAW.

With reference to Batliwala’s contention on women’s empowerment, it ispossible to claim that women’s support centers not only treat women as thebeneficiaries of local services; but also create a space for women to collectivizearound VAW, raise consciousness of their own sense of subordination, andimprove access to local services.66 The words of the mayor of Diyarbakır/Bismil explain how Nujin makes a difference in women’s lives as a transfor-mative resource for women’s empowerment.

We listened to the problems and demands of women: women asked for a placeto spend time and have consulting services. Therefore, women decided whatthey wanted to see in this center. They even decided on its name, Nujin. Itmeans ‘new life’ in Kurdish. In the beginning, we could not have imaged thatthis center would have been full of women. There are new applications everyday asking for help in the struggle against VAW. Additionally, women workhere voluntarily to help other women. In this respect, Nujin works thanks tothe support of these volunteer women because as the municipality, we canonly supply a limited number of personnel and funds. (2009–2014, BDP)

This excerpt tells us that women have become active agents through beingpart of something they wanted, and Nujin represents a ‘new life’ for them.In this sense, it helps women to gain self-reliance, which is severely curtailedby their powerlessness in relation to freedom of choice and action. Moreover,it provides a venue not only for women’s empowerment in the struggle againstVAW but also to harness women’s collective agency through the participationof volunteer women and women’s solidarity. Therefore, in addition to increas-ing the capacity of women to make their own personal choices, women’ssupport centers’ activities, particularly training and awareness-raising,prepare the ground for collective action by demonstrating that the problemswomen experience stem not from individual reasons but from patriarchal andgendered relations in Turkey.

Based on the findings of our research, we argue that women’s supportcenters function as the focal points for women in accessing assistance forVAW, poverty, housing, unemployment and counseling all under one roofon the basis of the localization and contextualization of services in each muni-cipality.67 All in all, in terms of women’s empowerment, women’s supportcenters improve the institutionalization and sustainability of the necessaryassets to help women exercise agency. Accordingly, they can be consideredsustainable empowerment policies for women in the struggle against VAW

TURKISH STUDIES 15

through changing the mentality of local governance towards providinggender-sensitive services and how these services help women to build individ-ual and collective capacity.

Conclusion

VAW is one prominent gender inequality problem that keeps women subor-dinate and restricts women’s access to resources. Hence, this article has dis-cussed the prospects for gender-sensitive policies within municipalitiesgoverned by female mayors in terms of women’s empowerment to copewith VAW. As Çınar and Uğur-Çınar argue, the transformation of insti-tutions and relations that sustain gender inequalities is essential, as otherwisewomen’s educational, economic and political resources would not besufficient for women’s full empowerment.68 The existing masculine designand gender-blind approach in Turkey’s local governments render these insti-tutional policies more vital.

In that vein, we assert that gender budgeting, gender-sensitive collec-tive-labor contracts, and women’s support centers can be regarded assuch institutional transformative resources to eliminate the embedded dis-empowered position of women in society as a whole at the local level inthe struggle against VAW. On that account, gender budgeting can beconsidered as a foundational resource for laying the ground for and sus-taining gender-sensitive policies for women’s empowerment in challen-ging the established patriarchal approach in decision-making process inmunicipalities in Turkey and, thereby, enabling women’s access toassets to satisfy their practical and strategic needs. Gender-sensitive col-lective-labor contracts can be regarded as a transformative resource inyielding change not only in men’s attitudes regarding VAW, but alsoin women’s capacity for agency in resisting VAW. Women’s supportcenters can function as the transformative resources of women’s empow-erment through developing the capacity of women in achieving agency bymeeting the needs of women in the municipal area, ensuring assistanceand protection to VAW victims, and increasing the sustainability ofthese policies addressing VAW. Accordingly, these gender-sensitive pol-icies bring forth both the individual and collective empowerment ofwomen at the local level.

Consequently, we assert that these institutional transformative resourcesare the cornerstones of women’s empowerment in terms of VAW; albeitthat the decisive factor in working towards the elimination of VAW is the pol-itical will to do it, which in our research was largely put forward by femalemayors. Herein lies the contribution of this study to the literature ongender, local politics, and VAW in theory and micro-level policy framingin practice by providing an empirical case study on Turkey.

16 A. SUMBAS AND B. KOYUNCU

Notes

1. Kabeer, “Gender Equality”; Goldman and Jani, “Innovative Grassroots NGOs”;Batliwala, “Meaning of Empowerment”; Batliwala, “Putting Power”; and Batli-wala, “Taking the Power.”

2. Beşpınar, “Questioning Agency”; Cindoğlu and Toktaş, “Empowerment andResistance”; Erman, Kalaycıoğlu, and Rittersberger-Tılıç, “Money-earningActivities”; Landig, “Bringing Women to the Table”; Çınar and Uğur-Çınar,“What the City has to Offer”; and Gündüz-Hoşgör and Smits, “The Status ofRural Women.”

3. Kardam and Kardam, “Empowerment through Training,” 92.4. WHO, Addressing Violence; Jansen et al., National Research on Domestic Vio-

lence; Yüksel-Kaptanoğlu, Çavlin, and Akadlı Ergöçmen, Türkiye’de KadınaYönelik Aileiçi Şiddet.

5. Vienna Declaration.6. Kabeer, “Gender Equality,” 14.7. The Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and

Domestic Violence adopted by the Council of Europe Committee of Ministerson 7 April 2011.

8. We Will Stop Femicide Platform.9. Turkey was ranked 69th out of 159 countries in the 2016 UN Gender Inequality

Index and 131st out of 144 countries in theWorld Gender Gap Report of WorldEconomic Forum, 2017.

10. Alkan, “Gendered Structures.”11. Kabeer, “Resources, Agency, Achievements”; Kabeer, “Gender Equality”; and

Mosedale, “Assessing Women’s Empowerment.”12. Cornwall and Rivas, “From ‘Gender Equality’”, andWHO, Addressing Violence.13. UN Nairobi Conference-1985, Local Agenda 21-1997, Council of European

Gender Equality-1998; European Commission Manual for Gender Main-streaming of Employment Policies-2007, The European Charter for Equalityof Women and Men in Local Life-2001, Istanbul Convention-2011.

14. Batliwala, “Putting Power”; Batliwala, “Taking the Power”; Cornwall and Rivas,“From ‘Gender Equality’,” 9; and Rowlands, “A Word of Times.”

15. Lombardo, Meier, and Verloo, “Policy Making,” 688; Walby, “Introduction:Comparative Gender Mainstreaming”; Rees, “Reflections on the Uneven”;and Kiwala and Masaud, Gender Mainstreaming.

16. Schuler, Islam, and Rottach, “Women’s Empowerment Revisited”; Mosedale,“Assessing Women’s Empowerment”; Kabeer, “Gender Equality”; andAcharya and Ghimire, “Gender Indicators of Equality.”

17. Batliwala, “Taking the Power.”18. WHO, Addressing Violence; Mosedale, “Assessing Women’s Empowerment”;

Afshar, “Women and Empowerment”; Kabeer, “Gender Equality”; Cornwalland Rivas, “From ‘Gender Equality’”; and Batliwala, “Taking the Power.”

19. Schuler and Hashemi, “Credit Programs”; Mayoux, “Tackling the Down Side”;and Kim et al., “Understanding the Impact.”

20. Kabeer, “Is Micro Finance a Magic,” and Batliwala, “Taking the Power.”21. Kabeer, “Gender Equality,” 16.22. Batliwala, “Putting Power,” 2.23. Kabeer, “Resources, Agency, Achievements,” and Kabeer, “Gender Equality.”24. Council of Europe, Gender Mainstreaming.25. Krizsan and Pap, “Implementing Comprehensive,” 25.

TURKISH STUDIES 17

26. Kandiyoti, “Locating the Politics.”27. Weldon and Htun, “Feminist Mobilization,” 234.28. The only regulation concerning the struggle against VAW is the requirement to

establish women’s shelter in the municipalities whose population exceeds100.000 (Article 14, 5393 No Code of Local Governments 2005).

29. Haktankaçmaz, “Yerel Yönetimler.”30. Şenol et al., Women Friendly Cities, and Gunluk-Senesen et al., “Gender

Budgeting.”31. See http://www.kadindostukentler.com/project.php.32. Gunluk-Senesen et al., “Gender Budgeting.”33. We list here the governing party, with AKP indicating the Justice and Develop-

ment Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi), which has ruled at the national levelsince 2002, and CHP the Republican Peoples’ Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi),which has been the largest opposition party.

34. Akduran, “Yerel Yaşamda”; “Çankaya’dan…”; “Urla… .”; Klatzer, Akduran,and Gültaşlı, Belediyeler için Toplumsal, 37–49; and KEIG Platformu StratejikPlan Çalışması.

35. Alanso, “Who Learns,” 177, 181.36. 158,217 cases were reported as VAW in 2017 in Spain. https://www.thelocal.es/

20180312/violence-against-women-in-spain-highest-ever-in-2017.37. Local governments in Turkey may act as the main locus of combat against

VAW through preventive, disincentive-protective and empowerment-suppor-tive local services such as women’s shelters, women’s centers, and social-econ-omic empowerment measures when gender-sensitive policies are promoted.See Koyuncu Lorasdağı and Sumbas, “Türkiye’de Yerel.”

38. Haktankaçmaz, “Kadına Yönelik Şiddetle Mücadelede”; Gunluk-Senesen et al.,“Gender Budgeting”; Diner and Toktaş, “Women’s Shelters”; and KoyuncuLorasdağı and Sumbas, “Türkiye’de Yerel.”

39. Bowman and Kearney, State and Local Government, and Levine, Urban Politics,118–119.

40. Klatzer, Akduran, and Gültaşlı, Belediyeler için Toplumsal, and Koyuncu Lor-asdağı and Sumbas, “Türkiye’de Yerel.”

41. Klatzer, Akduran, and Gültaşlı, Belediyeler için Toplumsal, 36.42. Ibid.43. This article is based on the findings of a research project funded by TUBITAK

(The Science and Technology Research Institution of Turkey, Project No.111K450) which aimed to investigate the discourses and activities of femalemayors elected in 2004 and 2009 local elections concerning the combatagainst VAW.

44. DTP (Democratic Society Party) and BDP were pro-Kurdish political parties inTurkey, which had taken part in the 2004–2009 and 2009–2014 local elections.DTP’s was closed in December 2009, and was followed by BDP as a successorparty. In May 2014, the BDP was closed and it was succeeded by HDP (People’sDemocratic Party). We prefer to use BDP to represent these parties.

45. Yüksel-Kaptanoğlu, Çavlin, and Akadlı Ergöçmen, Türkiye’de Kadına YönelikAileiçi Şiddet.

46. Bryman, Social Research Methods.47. Council of Europe, Gender Budgeting; Elson, “Gender Mainstreaming”; Çelik

and Ertürk Atabey, “Toplumsal Cinsiyetin Ana Akımlaştırılması”; Akduran,“Yerel Yönetimde”; and Akduran, “Yerel Yaşamda.”

18 A. SUMBAS AND B. KOYUNCU

48. Gunluk-Senesen et al., “Gender Budgeting.”49. Klatzer, Yerel Yönetimlerde Toplumsal Cinsiyet; Klatzer and Stiegler, Gender

Budgeting; Quinn, Gender Budgeting; Günlük-Şenesen, “Toplumsal Cinsiyet-Duyarlı Bütçeleme,” Şahin, “Toplumsal Cinsiyete-Duyarlı Bütçeleme”; andCáceres, Overview of Gender-responsive Budget.

50. Altınay and Arat, Türkiye’de Kadına Yönelik Şiddet, and Diner and Toktaş,“Women’s Shelters,” 345.

51. Günlük-Şenesen, “Toplumsal Cinsiyet-Duyarlı Bütçeleme,” and Şahin,“Toplumsal Cinsiyete-Duyarlı Bütçeleme.”

52. Haktankaçmaz, “Kadına Yönelik Şiddetle Mücadelede,” and Haktankaçmaz,“Yerel Yönetimler.”

53. Batliwala, “Putting Power.”54. Klatzer, Yerel Yönetimlerde Toplumsal Cinsiyet, 11.55. Çağlayan, “Kamusal Alan.”56. Despite the belief that gender-sensitive collective-labor contracts can be an

effective strategy to deter men violating their wives and daughters, it is foundcontroversial from legal perspective. See Bakırcı, “Aile içi veya Birlikte Yaşayan-lar Arasındaki Şiddete.”

57. Aktürk and Doğan, “Türkiye’de Belediyeler.”58. Batliwala, “Putting Power.”59. Walby, “Introduction”; Van der Leest, Xhelo, and Wittberger, Gender Equality;

Franceschet, “Explaining Domestic Violence”; and Krizsan and Pap, “Imple-menting Comprehensive.”

60. In Turkey, İzmir Metropolitan (CHP-2008), Ankara Metropolitan (AKP-2008),Çankaya (CHP-2010), Yenimahalle (CHP-2013), Bursa/Nilüfer (CHP), İstan-bul/Beşiktaş (CHP-2016) Municipalities have also women’s support centers.

61. GABB Bulletin, “Belediyemizde Cinsiyet,” 28–30.62. Ibid., 43–44.63. Krizsan and Pap, “Implementing Comprehensive.”64. For instance, after the rape incident in Diyarbakır Hospital in 2012, in addition

to providing shelter, psychological-legal consultancy to the victim woman, Kar-delen paid specific attention to make this incident as a public issue. (“KardelenKadın Evi’nden tecavüz.”). For the significance of municipal agenda setting toattract attention to VAW, see Andrew, “Getting Women’s Issue MunicipalAgenda.”

65. Kiwala and Masaud, Gender Mainstreaming, 22; Şenol et al., Women FriendlyCities; and Franceschet, “Explaining Domestic Violence.”

66. Batliwala, “Putting Power.”67. Krizsan and Pap, “Implementing Comprehensive,” and Tosun, Kadın Sığın-

maevleri Projesi,” 37–8.68. Çınar and Uğur-Çınar, “What the City Has to Offer,” 258.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey(TUBITAK) for their financial support for the 1001 research project numbered111K450. We owe special thanks to the female mayors without whose contributionsthis research would not be possible. We also appreciate the insightful comments ofanonymous reviewers that helped us to improve our manuscript.

TURKISH STUDIES 19

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

We are grateful to the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey(TUBITAK) for their financial support for the 1001 research project numbered111K450. We owe special thanks to the female mayors without whose contributionsthis research would not be possible. We also appreciate the insightful comments ofanonymous reviewers that helped us to improve our manuscript.

Notes on contributors

Ahu Sumbas was awarded a Ph.D. in Political Science at Hacettepe University in 2012.During her graduate work, she spent one year in Duisburg-Essen University. She iscurrently an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and PublicAdministration at Hacettepe University. She is interested in gender studies andlocal politics, gendered policies, women’s representation, and violence against women.

Berrin Koyuncu is Professor of Political Science in the Department of Political Scienceand Public Administration of Hacettepe University. She received her MA andPh. D. degrees from Bilkent University. She has published articles on local politicsin Turkey, gender, the headscarf issue in Europe, Turkish political thought, andTurkish political economy. She is the author of various articles in Women’s StudiesInternational Forum, Feminism & Psychology, and the Review of International Politi-cal Economy.

ORCID

Ahu Sumbas http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0944-4751

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